It's hard to change.  It's even harder to WANT to change.  I've been playing this game for about half my life and I reached a plateau in my abilities a long time ago.  I love this game, it's a challenge, it's fun, it's a nice diversion from life's little difficulties like paying bills and taking out the trash.  I know I don't want to be a Pro Tour player.  I don't have that kind of time, and I already have a nice job, but I do want to be better.  I like writing about formats like 100 singleton, but I don't have the credentials to back it up.  Therefore I've straddled the line between casual and competitive tournament player.  But I no longer think that's good enough.  Whenever I've had free time on the weekend, which is extremely rare, I've played in the 100 Classic Singleton Weekend Challenges.  I have nothing but a long string of 3-2 finishes with the occasional 3-3 finish and one 2-3 finish.  I've made more tickets than I've lost on those weekend challenges, but I'm still looking for a top 8 prize.  The major difficulty at the moment is finding the weekend challenge that fits my schedule, but there are a lot of other things that I have been doing to improve my game. 

This article is my attempt to put to words my struggle with facing some of my more egregious errors.  I've spent the last month trying to improve my game, play better, increase my rating, and qualify for MOCS for the first time.  Hopefully, my struggles at improving can help others who want to improve.

Months ago I wrote an article on playing goblins in 100 Classic Singleton. Here it is for reference http://puremtgo.com/articles/100-singleton-all-about-goblins Since then I've used an updated version the red white deck from that article as my standard 100 Classic Singleton deck.  Found below is the version of that deck I used about a month ago.  Glance it over and see if you can find any obvious deckbuilding mistakes in this deck.  There are several and I will talk about them throughout this article.

Boros Goblins

100 Classic Singleton Deck by Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand

Creatures 1 Stoneforge Mystic 1 Kor Firewalker 1 Goblin Lackey 1 Greater Gargadon 1 Baneslayer Angel 1 Plated Geopede 1 Weathered Wayfarer 1 Goblin Guide 1 Imperial Recruiter 1 Goblin Warchief 1 Goblin Sharpshooter 1 Boartusk Liege 1 Skirk Prospector 1 Murderous Redcap 1 Duergar Hedge-Mage 1 Vexing Shusher 1 Brion Stoutarm 1 Arc-Slogger 1 Ranger of Eos 1 Goblin Matron 1 Sparksmith 1 Goblin Ruinblaster 1 Siege-Gang Commander 1 Frenzied Goblin 1 Goblin Recruiter 1 Boggart Ram-Gang 1 Grim Lavamancer 1 Goblin Chieftain 1 Goblin Bushwhacker 1 Warren Instigator 1 Gempalm Incinerator 1 Gathan Raiders 1 Goblin King 1 Goblin Legionnaire 1 Magus of the Scroll 1 Goblin Ringleader 1 Mogg War Marshal 1 Goblin Piledriver 1 Flametongue Kavu 39 cards Other Spells 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Basilisk Collar 1 Lightning Helix 1 Chain Lightning 1 Violent Eruption 1 Seal of Fire 1 Land Tax 1 Path to Exile 1 Incinerate 1 Ajani Vengeant 1 Chrome Mox 1 Flame Jab 1 Tithe 1 Enlightened Tutor 1 Tarfire 1 Flame Javelin 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Orim's Thunder 1 Char 1 Fireblast 1 Seismic Assault 1 Fire/Ice 1 Magma Jet 1 AEther Vial 1 Burst Lightning 25 cards

Lands 1 Windswept Heath 11 Mountain 1 Thawing Glaciers 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Flagstones of Trokair 1 Flooded Strand 1 Barbarian Ring 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Arid Mesa 1 Karakas 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Rugged Prairie 1 Wasteland 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Keldon Megaliths 1 Snow-Covered Plains 1 Battlefield Forge 1 Ghitu Encampment 1 Mutavault 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Goblin Burrows 1 Plateau 1 Marsh Flats 2 Plains 36 cards Sideboard 1 Fulminator Mage 1 Magus of the Moon 1 Blood Moon 1 Dwarven Blastminer 1 Pulse of the Forge 1 Stigma Lasher 1 Dwarven Miner 1 Pyrokinesis 1 Balefire Liege 1 Aven Mindcensor 1 Crib Swap 1 Sphere of Law 1 Pyroblast 1 Death Spark 1 Manriki-Gusari 15 cards

	Deckbuilding	(pic=Ponder)

I've always placed some personal value on having an original deck.  I've never copied a deck from the internet without making a few changes just so I can call it my own.  This is a mistake.  While having a unique and rogue deck is nice and a source of pride, it does no good when you're starting out.  Sometimes you just need to follow in other people's footsteps to know what's good and what isn't.  I trust a lot of my card evaluations on theory because I don't have enough time to put everything into practice, but I also miss an awful lot of insight this way.  The best way to learn a format is to play it.  The second best way is to watch others play it.  Copying another player's deck feels so wrong to me, and yet the only way to learn about that deck is to copy it and play with it.  If all you do is play against a certain decktype, you're going to miss critical details that you would know about by playing that deck yourself.

100 classic singleton presents one of the most challenging deck building situations due to the format's deck size and variability.  As such, I've made a lot of errors in deckbuilding.  However I haven't been discouraged by those errors.  I've learned from them.  Here are some of the common deckbuilding errors I've done or witnessed others doing. 

Deckbuilding
	Too many colorless utility lands

I've often tried to squeeze all kinds of colorless land into my 100 singleton decks because they play double duty.  They act as spells that can't be countered and they provide valuable mana to play your spells.  However if you add too many, you will be stuck with dead cards in your hand just waiting to be stripped away with a Mind Twist.  Wasteland is practically a necessity in any 100 singleton deck because it flat-out wins games, however Tectonic Edge is not quite as powerful. 

Mishra's Factory and Mutavault have won me a lot of games, but they have also cost me lots of games because I've been unable to find the right color of mana I need in a convient time-frame.  This issue becomes especially relevant with Back to Basics in the format. 

Mishra's Factory and Mutavault are a luxury that only mono-colored decks and mono-colored decks with a slight splash can afford.  In other decks they will often get in the way of your other spells.  I learned this the hard way with my heavy red/white goblin aggro deck.  The colorless man-lands meant that there were several games where I couldn't get out my Elspeth, Baneslayer Angel, Siege-Gang Commander, or (Arc Slogger) when I really needed them.  You have a little more flexibility with a green deck, but you can still run into this problem.  Playing too many colorless land is an easy mistake to make.  Playtesting may not reveal this error, because these cards may not always show up.

This is the main difficulty of 100 singleton.  Specific cards in your deck may not show up in combination or together for several matches, so you may not see specific mana-base weaknesses for several games.  That doesn't mean they aren't there.

Deckbuilding
	Forgetting why a card is in your deck

At one point in time I was testing out the effectiveness of landfall effects in my red/white weenie deck.  To this end I added Thawing Glaciers to the deck as a way to always have landfall triggers for Steppe Lynx, Plated Geopede, Emeria Angel, Zektar Shrine Expedition and Adventuring Gear.  My testing gave me less than impressive results and I ended up scrapping all the landfall creatures except Steppe Lynx and Plated Geopede.  My mistake was that I didn't touch my mana base after changing my deck, and Thawing Glaciers stayed in my deck well after its main usefulness had been removed from the deck.  Thawing Glaciers was marginal when it could provide me with some landfall synergy, but it was downright awful in an aggro deck without that synergy.

I've done similar things with tutors.  This is especially true with Enlightened Tutor, when I've made cuts to an aggro deck to the point where Enlightened Tutor looks like a really bad Steelshaper's Gift.  Do not try that at home.

Whenever you make changes to your deck, check out all the cards in your deck to make sure there is a still a reason for them. 

Deckbuilding
	Not planning around hate cards

All red decks should know about and anticipate running into Kor Firewalker.  In 100 Singleton there are several ways to deal with this pesky little creature, including but not limited to Pyrite Spellbomb, Cursed Scroll, Barbarian Ring, and Ghostfire.  Every good red deck should be playing a couple of these answers, and a failure to do so will get you a couple of game losses here and there. 

You should also anticipate and prepare for other common forms of hate such as Dwarven Miner, Blood Moon, Hydroblast, Tivadar of Thorn, (Hybernation), and Choke.  Many top 100 singleton players limit the amount of dual lands they have in their deck to limit their susceptibility to nonbasic hate, as that is one of the most common forms of hate in 100 singleton.

Deckbuilding
	Trying to have an answer for everything

If you play Moat then I'll just play Acidic Slime or Qasali Pridemage.  If you have a counterspell, I'll retrieve my creature with Genesis and try it again.  If you play Humility, then I'll counter with Krosan Grip.  If you then have Dovescape, I'll burn you out with Banefire.  If you've got the Painter Grindstone combo, I'll counter it with Gaea's Blessing.  If you've got burn, I've got a Loxodon Hierarch for that situation.

This is a line of thinking that I've caught myself using over and over again.  Have you noticed the problem with this argument?  The problem is that I'm focusing so much on countering my opponent's strategy that I've completely forgotten my own strategy.  If I'm playing an aggressive deck and my opponent is playing the control deck, then I'm the one that is supposed to be asking the questions.  Krosan Grip may triumphantly save the day against a Moat and allow me to trample all over my opponent in a glorious fashion, but then there is going to be those games when Krosan Grip sits in my hand doing nothing while my opponent is striking me down with a Baneslayer Angel.  Control decks generally win the long games and aggro decks generally win the short game.  An aggro deck's responsibility is to end the game quickly before a control deck stabilizes, and this generally means that it should be creating threats of all shape and size, and not worrying about countering whatever the control deck is trying to accomplish.  If a control deck taps out for a Moat, then that's a good time to play Sulfuric Vortex or an Elspeth or just start aiming burn at your opponent's head.  It's not a pretty solution, and it doesn't feel like you're out smarting your opponent, but this strategy is consistant and it will win you games.   

Deckbuilding
	Juggling too many plans at one time

"Jack of many trades, master of none."  

This is the description of many of my old 100 classic singleton decks.  I admit that I am a bit too attached to winning with creatures.  Most of my decks involve swinging with creatures, which naturally means I'm going usually going for aggro decks.  The problem is that beyond the theme of "winning with creatures" my decks were all over the map.  I would devote some cards to combo creatures, so cards to pure aggro creatures, some cards to utility creatures, and some cards to defensive creatures.  This would generally mean that I would have some very interesting games in which I was always trying to best utilize my creatures in order to win.  However, my deck was more designed for drawing games out and making them interesting than going for the straight forward victory.  I had moderate success with my decks, and I won more than I lost.  Still, I didn't have that cutthroat attitude.  My decks didn't go for the kill and flat-out win.  My decks would often drag things out and I would end up winning by the skin of my teeth or losing horribly.  I remember playing in the weekend events several times and ending up with good but not great final records.  I have a long string of 3-2 finishes and I have yet to make the top 8.  At the same time I don't think I've ever done worse than 2-3 at the weekend challenges. 

One example of this in my red white deck is Land Tax and Seismic Assault. They are both decent cards and Land Tax is really useful in many situations, but in a very aggressive creature and burn deck, this combo often becomes clunky and lackluster.  I believe that it definitely has a place in a 100 singleton deck, but it would be much more at home in a red, white, and blue deck that can afford to be a little more controlling and have a way to protect both enchantments with counterspells.

When dealing with a game of luck, moderate success is the worst situation to deal with when trying to improve your game.  When you flat out fail, you know you have to change, there is no argument against it.  Things aren't working, and change is the obvious and only answer if you wish to succeed.  When you're very successful, then change is simply the process of identifying the few mistakes you've made and trying to erase them as best you can.  When you're moderately successful, it's difficult to identify what's working and what isn't working.  Worse yet, you tend to get comfortable with the status quo.  "Sure, I may not be making the top 8 of the weekend event, but at least I'm bringing home 3 packs in prizes."  This kind of attitude is poisonous if you are trying to get better.  This was my attitude and it is something I've been trying to deal with over the past 2 months.  Since then, I've raised both my constructed and limited ratings above 1815 and kept them in the 1815 to 1850 range consistently.  I have also qualified for a MOCS for the first time ever.  It may not seem like much to many of you, but it was my personal goal, and I reached it.

Deckbuilding
	Decking building based on Big Hairy Ideas

For a while I was obsessed with the perfect Entomb draw.  Turn 1 play entomb to fetch a huge monstrosity like Sphinx of the Steel Wind and then turn 2 play a reanimation spell like Animate Dead, Reanimate, Life/Death, or Exhume to bring it back for a victory.  This plan is so simple and yet so appealing that modern big huge threats now have shuffling clauses to make sure they aren't used in this way.  The problem with this strategy is that Entomb is just one card in 100, and the Entomb combo rarely happens on its own.  This means that you're going to need a back-up plan most of the time.  The problem comes when you put together 20 cards to fit around your master plan and fill out the rest of your deck with generally really good cards.

In my Boros goblin deck I was obsessed with Balefire Liege for a while.  In my desire to win with flare rather than to just win, I was trying very hard to make him work, and going out of my way to make him good.  I would use every victory him created as justification for his presence in the deck while ignoring losses where he didn't do much for me.  In the end, I was trying to hard to make him work.  He's a very fun card, but he's about 1 mana too expensive for the format.

Big hairy ideas are not necessarily bad, but they need to be deep enough to support an entire deck.  Building a deck based on the card Entomb is bad, however building a deck off of the concept of reanimation can be very good.  Building a deck around Pestermite and (Kiki-Jiki the Mirror Breaker) is bad, but building a deck around red and blue weenies is good.  Similarly Survival of the Fittest and Recurring Nightmare are great cards, but if your deck can't function without either, it's going to be bad. 

Control decks that use combos are little different than Big Hairy Idea decks.  Often the exact mechanism of the win in a control deck is not as important as taking control of the game and stopping your opponent from doing much of anything.  What I call Big Hairy Idea decks are decks that arise from the deckbuilding saying, hmm, I wish I had a deck that could do ____fill_in_the_blank_____ because that's awesome.     

Deckbuilding
	Giving up on an idea too soon

100 Singleton decks are very hard to playtest, because a big portion of the deck will not show up in any given game.  Therefore the impact of minor changes to the deck may not show up for several games.  If a deck originally doesn't pan out, it's easy to give up on the idea because changing a few cards in a 100 card deck isn't going to have a huge impact unless those cards are heavily searched for cards like dual lands or Engineered Explosives.

Deckbuilding
	Evolving a deck after each 2-man match

"I wish I had _________ card in my deck."

"If I could have just tutored for or drawn ___________ card, I would have won."

How many times have you had thoughts like these?  I've had them all the time.  At one point in time I would switch out 2-3 cards after each 2 man queue I entered in order to gear my deck towards the deck I just faced.  In the short term, this works.  The 100 singleton queues fire so infrequently, that you are likely to get a rematch if you keep joining the queue over and over again.  On the other hand, if you keep doing this, you're bound to create a deck with lots of anti-synergistic elements and a deck with little to no focus.  

A loss is a loss, and it doesn't mean that you need to immediately change your deck to have a better game against the deck you just faced.  Sometimes you just had a bad draw.  Sometime your opponent just had an exceptionally good draw.  If you change your deck too frequently you are probably going to replace past deckbuilding mistakes with new ones. 

	Meta-Gaming

Choosing the right deck for the right situation is not easy.  Sometimes that deck involves playing with a strategy that you're not comfortable with.  I tend to prefer creature based decks over control based decks.  However if I limit myself to creature based strategies, there will always be times where I will have the wrong deck at the wrong time.  Here are some of the common Meta-Gaming mistakes that I've either made or witnessed.

Meta-Gaming
	Choosing to use an untested Meta-Game Deck

I would say that you don't really know a typical constructed deck until you've played it at least 20 games.  With 100 classic singleton, it takes many more games to learn a deck.  I've been surprised to find new interactions between cards in some decks that I've played for years.  It might be tempting to choose a deck that has a good match-up against the decks that won last week's premier event, but if you don't have much time to playtest that deck, it's probably a bad idea.  Meta-game advantages are often slim in 100 singleton, and a well-tuned well-practiced deck will beat a good meta-game deck any day of the week.  There is no substitute for playing experience with a deck. 

Meta-Gaming
	Not shifting your deck to face a known meta-game threat

100 Classic Singleton is a much smaller pond than block constructed or standard.  Therefore knowing the metagame is extremely important.  As I noted before, it takes time to tune and practice with a new deck.  Therefore the metagame shifts relatively slowly.  Sure, the top 8 of the weekend challenge may change quite a bit from week to week.  However the 50-100 players that actively play in the queues and in the weekend challenges don't switch decks very quickly.  Many players, myself included, have pet decks that we like to play over and over again, which means that there is to a certain extend, a metagame that is somewhat resistant to change.  You can either take advantage of this fact or be the victim of it.  So, look at the decks that players are playing and take notes, then compare that to who is registered or who has played in the 2-man queues recently.  That way you can get an rough idea of the metagame before a tournament or before you enter a 2-man queue.

	Playing

Some playing mistakes are easy to see, some are not.  Mentally I replaced the text of Primal Command's put target noncreature permanent on top of its owner's library with "Plow Under for one, that can also hit planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts."  Can you guess what's wrong with that mental short cut.  Yep, on at least two occasions I've targeted a man-land with Primal Command only to have it fizzle when my opponent animated that land.  Wow, that's the kind of mistake that makes a guy feel really stupid. 

However that's not the type of mistakes I want to talk about.  I'm talking about more subtle mistakes.  The kind of mistakes that you could make an argument that they aren't really mistakes. You could argue that they were simply choices that ended poorly.  However, when those choices end up with lost matches over and over again, it becomes clear that those choices are true mistakes that better players avoid.  

Playing
	The Mulligan "What if?" game

Most players look at a hand and start to think about the best case scenarios.  "This hand would be perfect if I draw a land in the first two turns."  Don't play this game.  Instead look at the worst case scenario.  What if I don't draw what I need?  Will this hand lose unconditionally without help?  It's generally not a good idea to be pessimistic, but a little pessimism goes a long way with mulligan decisions.

Playing
	Thinking cards in your hand are safe

One of the basic strategies of limited play is to save some of your biggest threats for later because your opponent will most likely be able to deal with your first threat with the one and only removal spell in his hand.  This strategy fails A LOT in 100 classic singleton because your lands aren't safe and the cards in your hand aren't safe.  In sealed deck and draft it's hard to attack these zones.  In 100 classic singleton Mind Twists get tossed around like footballs and Armageddon is way of life for players.

Playing
	Tutoring for the wrong card

I've seen many players use tutors on auto-pilot.  Enlightened Tutor can fetch more than Moat and Primal Command can fetch more than Eternal Witness.  It may look like the optimal play, and I've seen players use it as a default non-thinking option, but there are are often better options given the state of the board. 

	Sideboarding

Sideboards are the most underutilized part of the game.

The toughest part of sideboarding is knowing what to take out.  Sideboarding should be about making your deck the best possible deck for facing your opponent.  If your sideboard does nothing but tweak your deck, it's not doing enough. 

Sideboarding
	Including sideboard cards in my main deck

Krosan Grip is a sideboard card against control decks.  It shouldn't be in the main deck.  Don't put potentially dead cards in your main deck, unless you have a very good grasp of the metagame.  I've done it, and I've regretted it.

Sideboarding
	Sideboarding on the fly

Always have a sideboard plan against the likely decks you will face.  The last thing you want to do is to be looking through a 100 card deck looking for cards to take out on the fly in order to make room for obvious hate cards. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  I know, that line is a bit cliched, but it is very true.

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Here is my current Boros Goblin deck.  I've put it down for the time being because there are so many clones of So Many Troll's white blue anti-red deck running around, but before I put it down for that metagame reason, I've made some substantial improvements to it.

Boros Red White

by Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand

Creatures 1 Greater Gargadon 1 Baneslayer Angel 1 Weathered Wayfarer 1 Hell's Thunder 1 Imperial Recruiter 1 Plated Geopede 1 Goblin Warchief 1 Goblin Sharpshooter 1 Murderous Redcap 1 Duergar Hedge-Mage 1 Hellspark Elemental 1 Changeling Berserker 1 Brion Stoutarm 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Steppe Lynx 1 Arc-Slogger 1 Kor Firewalker 1 Ranger of Eos 1 Goblin Matron 1 Figure of Destiny 1 Sparksmith 1 Goblin Ruinblaster 1 Siege-Gang Commander 1 Goblin Recruiter 1 Grim Lavamancer 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda 1 Kor Skyfisher 1 Goblin Chieftain 1 Emeria Angel 1 Goblin Bushwhacker 1 Aven Mindcensor 1 Reveillark 1 Goblin Guide 1 Goblin Lackey 1 Gempalm Incinerator 1 Goblin Legionnaire 1 Stoneforge Mystic 1 Goblin Ringleader 1 Goblin Piledriver 39 cards Other Spells 1 Journey to Nowhere 1 Sword of Fire and Ice 1 Lightning Helix 1 Pyrite Spellbomb 1 Ravages of War 1 Incinerate 1 Cursed Scroll 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1 Path to Exile 1 Ajani Vengeant 1 Basilisk Collar 1 Oblivion Ring 1 Tarfire 1 Swords to Plowshares 1 Char 1 Fireblast 1 Lightning Bolt 1 Adventuring Gear 1 Sensei's Divining Top 1 Magma Jet 1 Æther Vial 1 Burst Lightning 21 cards

Lands 1 Windswept Heath 1 Wooded Foothills 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Flagstones of Trokair 1 Flooded Strand 1 Barbarian Ring 4 Mountain 4 Plains 1 Smoldering Spires 4 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Karakas 1 Sacred Foundry 1 Reflecting Pool 1 Windbrisk Heights 1 Wasteland 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Keldon Megaliths 1 Battlefield Forge 1 Rugged Prairie 1 Ghitu Encampment 1 Mutavault 1 Mishra's Factory 1 Gruul Turf 1 Boros Garrison 1 Marsh Flats 1 Plateau 1 Terramorphic Expanse 1 Arid Mesa 39 cards Sideboard 1 Active Volcano 1 Flametongue Kavu 1 Blood Moon 1 Vexing Shusher 1 Relic of Progenitus 1 Orim's Thunder 1 Pyrokinesis 1 Armageddon 1 Ricochet Trap 1 Auriok Champion 1 Pyroblast 1 Sulfuric Vortex 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 1 Sword of Light and Shadow 14 cards

It's still a work in progress, but now it is focused on beating down with weenie creatures.  I've dismantled my enlightened tutor combo engine because it often distracts me from my aggro goals.  I've upped the land count for more consistency, and added more white and colorless removal to deal with anti-red hate.  It's far from perfect, and right now it's a poor meta-game choice, but in my mind, it's still an improvement.  And if you're always getting better, success is unavoidable. 

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Thanks for Reading,

 - Marcus, Shuyin Knight of Zanarkand on Magic Online